2010/01/01

Flyers Lose Winter Classic

The Flyers lost to the Boston Bruins 2-1 in overtime today in another great Winter Classic game. The rain and snow held off, and the game went on as planned. It started to get dark and chippy by the end of the game, and the Flyers allowed a late Bruins goal in regulation, and then in overtime to lose the game.

Overall, the game was great to watch, and I'm sure was fun to be at and play in. The atmosphere was great. Flyers fans, who are the best in the NHL packed Fenway Park, and you could hear Flyers chants throughout the game. The Flyers got a goal early in the 2nd period on the first career goal by Danny Syvret. The Flyers had a lot of chances throughout the 2nd period, and dominated most of the action that period.

The 1-0 lead held up through most of the 3rd period as well, until the refs gave the Bruins a bullshit power play with less than 4 minutes left in the game. Former Flyer, Mark Recchi scored on the ensuing power play with a little over 2 minutes left. I am a huge believer that referees do not like the Flyers at all. I know the Flyers play rough, and they lead the league in penalty minutes, but they always seem to have a target on their backs. Because of that reputation, refs are always going to call the Flyers on weak penalties, that other teams would not get called for.

Either way, the game went into overtime, but before that, the Flyers got another penalty called against them with under a minute left in the 3rd period. The Flyers fought that penalty off, but the Bruins scored a goal a couple minutes into the overtime period to win the game and the Winter Classic. Right before the Bruins scored, Danny Briere had a wide open net with the puck on his stick, but couldn't get a shot off. If the game were indoors, Briere probably buries that, but he wasn't able to get the shot off with the chippy ice in overtime. I will say that Michael Leighton was solid in net all night for the Flyers, and there wasn't much he could do on the 2 goals that were scored against him.

Even though it seems like it is tough to play on, and the conditions aren't as good as a regular indoor game, I am a big fan of the Winter Classic, and was glad the Flyers were chosen to play in it, even though I am very disappointed with the outcome. Also am disappointed we had to watch that fat phony, Curt Schilling during the 1st intermission wearing a Bruins jersey talk about Philadelphia and Boston fans.

3 comments:

T-Bone
said...

Yeah, I know this always sounds like Philly whining, but several decades of following the Flyers leaves absolutely no doubt that the NHL, through its myopic refs, has long targeted the 'Boys. The "tripping" call against Timonen with 3:52 left, which opened the way for the Bruin's tying goal, was absolutely, demonstrably bogus -- Timonen was flat on the ice behind the net when Savard clearly stepped on his leg and fell down! Both Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder could have made better calls! And, to top it off, the Bruins clearly had 6 men on the ice when Sturm's tying goal went in -- even the Bruins-biased TV announcers mentioned that little fact, suggesting that the Boston boys should have been issued a penalty rather than a goal. These "errors" are simply too egregious to be taken as mistakes, especially when these kinds of bogus calls and oversights happen again and again to the Flyers, season after season, decade after decade. It's pure bullshit, particularly when you consider that the Flyers, in the Broad Street Bully era, were single-handedly responsible for increasing viewership, fan interest, attendance, and revenue for the entire NHL to an unprecedented degree. One could argue that there probably wouldn't even be a nationally televised Winter Classic had it not been for the notoreity and wide exposure the Bullies brought to the game as NHL expansion was in its early stages. And the thanks we get? Pussy rule changes eliminating exactly the kind of hockey that stimulated increased interest in the sport (at least interest in the US), and a carefully engineered, deliberate effort to slant the ice in favor of every Flyers' opponent. The fact of the matter is that the fix has been in for decades to negatively influence the outcome of Flyers' games -- and the fixers occupy the highest levels of the NHL administration. Our only response, as in the Bully era, should be to so thoroughly intimidate opponents through a lethal combination of ass-kicking (Schultz, "Hound" Kelly), nastiness (Clarke), speed/shot-making (MacLeish, Leach), and stellar goaltending (Parent) that the refs' league-sanctioned game fixing simply won't work.

And as for Schilling, I'd like to put that fat, loud-mouthed, pontificating POS in a for-real cage match with Mitch Williams who'd like nothing better than to kick Schilling's fat sorry ass from here to eternity -- it would be the only time fan support for Williams would be amply justified...